What teaching fitness classes has taught me about leadership

I’ve been taking group fitness classes for four years, and teaching them for the past year. Hundreds of students attend my barre, pilates and flow classes every week, so I really do see how sports changes lives everyday. However, it takes courage and strong conviction to enable this experience on the other side of the crowd. Here are the parallels that I’ve found between teaching fitness classes and being a confident leader at work.

One study published in Human Kinetics in 2017 looked at how athletic participation affected students’ leadership skills. Student athletes scored significantly higher than non-athletes in overall transformational leadership, particularly in people and self management and dealing with feelings or emotions, especially unexpected ones (what we call resilience nowadays).

Learning to drive teams and projects with humbleness and a desire to serve seems obvious, but it takes many on-the-spot challenges to understand how to switch from leader to enabler. It has taken me many fitness classes and much self-reflection, but practice makes the master, so don’t be afraid to test out scenarios or situations. Letting go of control allows me to serve others better and lead by example rather than just words.

I teach fitness classes to dozens of people every week, and yet I know the names of most of the students that come to my classes for the second time. If you’re new, I’ll shake your hand, introduce myself, and give you a rundown of what to expect from the session. I’ll encourage you to ease into the workout and find playfulness while trying a new class. I’ll ask you how it was once the class is over, and I’ll say thank you for coming and really mean it. My goal here is not just to be nice, but to influence students to enter a safe space to improve, instead of feeling judged.

Practicing sports and later teaching them to wider crowds has given me a strong grounding on what it means to be in a team – on both practical and emotional levels. Students and team members need to feel connected and safe to push their limits; how can you find a nice emotional state if you’re not feeling welcome in that environment? Both in the studio and in the office, I have learnt how encouraging and connecting with team members to pursue team goals rather than individual ones is the only path to success.

Another leadership skill is being observant and highly adaptable – like a sponge! As a teacher, I need to meet my students where they are; as a leader, I need to understand where my teammates stand and I don’t resist if they’re not meeting me where I want them to be. If a certain method or sequence does not work for them, I will offer alternatives and be prepared to explain how or why it is beneficial to them, instead of micromanaging or judging.

In the studio, I’ve had to learn that even if I have the best playlist, the most comprehensible explanations or the most well-rounded sequence, weird things will still happen. In these instances, I have to adapt the whole plan in a split second for the class to run smoothly again. Think about a song that gets stuck, an exercise that no one gets, or a student who needs my attention for the whole song. At work, the same might happen if a team member disagrees, a date falls through, or an external blocker impedes progress. How do you deal with that much uncertainty?

Well, you don’t. I haven’t learnt to deal with unexpected circumstances, because that’s what unexpected means. You cannot learn to solve what you don’t know can happen. Therefore, my secret recipe is to accept that anticipation is never applicable to humans (we’re not robots, therefore unpredictability Is part of our DNA) but you can get comfortable with uncertainty. Try to widen your perspective and see things from several angles, question yourself and develop tools to unstick yourself quickly.

To be kind, empathic, create a community, motivate others and have razor-sharp vision, my mental and physical states are always crucial. For me, developing strong leadership skills started with self-exploration of what works and what doesn’t, and spending time away from my responsibilities to find new ideas, rebalance and gather energy to lead.

Focusing on the team over yourself, enabling safe spaces, navigating the unexpected, building relationships with your teammates, and striking a balance are just a few of the leadership traits that teaching fitness has taught me. Keep in mind that being a great leader doesn’t happen overnight and will always be a work in progress – figuring out what makes me a good leader in the studio or the office and merge those skills are a part of mine!